William Kokesch, 65, was arrested on Friday. Police said they found more than 2,000 images of children on a computer.

Deacon William Kokesch

Kokesch, who lives in Pointe-Claire, was a deacon for the St-Edmund of Canterbury parish in Beaconsfield on Montreal’s West Island, is reportedly a key member of the parish.

The Archdiocese of Montreal released a statement on Saturday saying the deacon had been immediately removed from all ministry and pastoral activity. The archdiocese said that it will continue to be attentive to the needs of its parishioners and would co-operate with authorities.

Kokesch was a communications director for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. He helped co-ordinate World Youth Day conferences in Toronto, Rome and Paris, according to the organization’s website.

Meanwhile, the Pope’s latest denunciation of gay marriage came in a Christmas address on Friday to Vatican officials in which he promised to forge alliances with other religious groups to combat same-sex unions.

In some countries, the Catholic Church has already joined forces with Jews, Muslims and members of other religions to oppose the legalisation of gay marriage, in some cases presenting arguments based on legal, social and anthropological analyses rather than religious teachings.

Ratzinger specifically praised as “profoundly moving” a study by Gilles Bernheim, France’s Chief Rabbi, which has become the subject of heated debate in that country.

His study, Gay Marriage, Parenthood and Adoption: What We Often Forget To Say, argues that plans to legalise gay marriage are being made for “the exclusive profit of a tiny minority” and are often supported because of political correctness.

In his speech on Friday, the Pope repeated some of the concepts in the Bernheim study, including an assertion that children raised by gay couples would be more “objects” than individuals.

62 Responses to “Pope denounces gay marriage on the same day that a deacon was arrested for child porn”

JMW: I wondered whether you were joking there, but some people get so uptight about these things. When our Brethren “assembly” used hired rooms, we had our yearly convention in a community centre oposite the local church. The Gospel Hall was in process of construction, so at tea time one of the elders gave instructions for anyone who fancied taking a look at the work in progress. He actually paused and informed them that they needed to cross the main road “when they came to the large building opposite”. You could almost hear the cogs grinding as he debated how he ought to put it!

this is the pope calling the kettle black….why should same sex couples want to get married in a church that is overseen by such imbecilic, morally deficient, sexually repressed old men ? Reading the article reveal;s that the catholics have “joined forces” with other religions to combat same sex marriages…lets suppose these marriages are products of other religions than the Catholics, Jews or Muslims ( the three religions in this unholy alliance)…what then? Herr Pope should start sorting out his in house problems before pontif-icating to other faiths…

Hang on there. What does a confirmed bachelor like Ratzinger, or the Catholic Archbisop know about marriage? These guys have allegedly never had sex with anyone(nudge nudge,wink wink)so how can they talk about love between two people. That is like me trying to tell people how to ski, when I’ve never skied in my life.

Good news Barriejohn, the church will hate it and MaryD will have to post another peculiar spelling of unnatural. I have a couple of friends who had to leave Belfast in the 70s because their families hated the idea of someone marrying into a filthy religion – I still dont know which of them was the proddy and which the catlick, and am very glad of it.
How will Irish society cope with humanist weddings and naming days, children might grow up not hating the other part of their community

Matt, I suppose I am a congregationalist atheist but my parents had the decency not to have me branded, they thought religious affiliation should be the choice of their children when they were old enough to understand what it was all about.

It is time to discuss why religion, in general, hates sex so strongly. Why should anyone be concerned with what a coupe (or more people, if you wish) do in bed?
if a person chooses to use a different hole or part of his/her body why should I complain?
The procreation argument is invalid because we already have too many people on earth. A gay couple who chooses to adopt is doing a much greater service then regular hetero couple who decide to have ther own offsprings.